Friedman Brain Institute

Everyday Health - Even Safe Sugar Levels Can Be Toxic, Study Finds

– August 13, 2013 ––

Sugar may not be so sweet after all, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers found that sugar was toxic to mice even at doses considered safe—a finding that has researchers urging everyone to limit the amount of refined sugar in their diet. The researchers gave mice a diet made up of 25 percent extra sugar, the equivalent of a healthy human diet plus three cans of soda every day, and found that female mice on the added sugar diet died at twice the rate of the control mice, although the same was not seen in male mice. “This difference has been seen before, but it’s not clear why,” said Christopher Ochner, PhD, an assistant professor in the departments of pediatrics and psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s an understudied phenomenon.”
- Dr. Christopher Ochner, Assistant Professor, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiLearn more